Publications

Abstract This paper features a growth model with an appropriative contest and a common-pool investment game between politically organised rival ethnic factions. I determine how the long-run equilibrium coalition shapes incentives to invest, show the existence of a unique steady state, and investigate how the ease to capture rents affects economic performance. The use of numerical simulations concerning a global sample of countries demonstrates that contest intensity can sometimes be beneficial, despite wasteful grabbing behaviours, due to a mechanism related to the concentration of power. When rents become easier to capture, dominant groups have an incentive to expand their influence further. This adjustment can be beneficial as these groups contribute most to capital accumulation.
Keywords Ethnic, Appropriative competition, Economic performance
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Abstract On a French firm dataset, productivity at the technological frontier has not decelerated and convergence of firms’ productivity has not slowed down. Yet, the dispersion of productivity has increased, which suggests growing difficulties in reallocating production factors between firms.
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Abstract Selon l'auteur, professeur d'économie à l'Université d'Aix-Marseille, le statut des pauvres a évolué. Longtemps oubliés du capitalisme, ils seraient devenus des piliers du profit marchand. De cette relation entre deux entités contradictoires émerge un questionnement sur les fondements et l'avenir du système économique capitaliste. ©Electre 2018
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Abstract Under uncertainty, mean growth of, say, wealth is often defined as the growth rate of average wealth, but it can alternatively be defined as the average growth rate of wealth. We argue that stochastic stability points to the latter notion of mean growth as the theoretically relevant one. Our discussion is cast within the class of continuous-time AK-type models subject to geometric Brownian motions. First, stability concepts related to stochastic linear homogeneous differential equations are introduced and applied to the canonical AK model. It is readily shown that exponential balanced-growth paths are not robust to uncertainty. In a second application, we evaluate the quantitative implications of adopting the stochastic-stability-related concept of mean growth for the comparative statics of global diversification in the seminal model due to Obstfeld (1994).
Keywords Mean growth, Global diversification, Stochastic stability, Endogenous stochastic growth, AK model
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Abstract We investigate the extent to which standard one sector RBC models with positive externalities and variable capacity utilization can account for the large hump-shaped response of output when the model is submitted to a pure sunspot shock. We refine the Benhabib and Wen (2004) model considering a general type of additive separable preferences and a general production function. We provide a detailed theoretical analysis of local stabilities and local bifurcations as a function of various structural parameters. We show that, when labor is infinitely elastic, local indeterminacy occurs through Flip and Hopf bifurcations for a large set of values for the elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption, the degree of increasing returns to scale and the elasticity of capital-labor substitution. Finally, we provide a detailed quantitative assessment of the model and conclude with mixed results. We show that although the model is able theoretically to generate a hump-shaped dynamics of output following an i.i.d. sunspot shock under realistic parameter values, the hump is too persistent for the model to be considered fully satisfactory from an empirical point of view.
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Abstract Developments in macro-econometrics have been evolving since the aftermath of the Second World War. Essentially, macro-econometrics benefited from the development of mathematical, statistical, and econometric tools. Such a research programme has attained a meaningful success as the methods of macro-econometrics have been used widely over about half a century now to check the implications of economic theories, to model macroeconomic relationships, to forecast business cycles, and to helppolicymakers to make appropriate decisions.[...]
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Abstract Biological invasions entail massive biodiversity losses and tremendouseconomic impacts that justify significant management efforts. Because thefunds available to control biological invasions are limited, there is a need toidentify priority species. This paper first review current invasive species pri-oritization methods and explicitly highlights their pitfalls. We then constructa cost-benefit optimization framework that incorporates species utility, eco-logical value, distinctiveness, and species interactions. This framework offersthe theoretical foundations of a simple and operational method for the man-agement of invasive species under a limited budget constraint. It takes theform of an algorithm for the prioritization of multiple biological invasions.
Keywords Prioritization, Cost/benefit, Biodiversity, Biological invasions, Economic model, Optimization, Conservation des espèces, Espèce invasive, Biodiversité, Modèle économique, Choix d&#039, espèce
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Abstract In this paper, we report the results of risk attitudes elicitation of a French general practitioners national representative sample (N=1568).
Keywords Risk attitudes, GP&#039, s behavior, Patient-regarding preferences, Representative sample, Medical decision making
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Abstract To expedite payments, firms use convenience pricing strategies. A price is considered convenient if it can be paid with few coins. Convenient prices are well understood in offline retailing, but not online. This article fills the gap, examining an original panel dataset more than 2.5 million observations of book prices from Amazon.com. We provide empirical evidence supporting two claims. First in a static setup, more convenient prices are more likely to be set. Second in a dynamic setup, more convenient prices are more rigid. Emphasizing the role of convenience, this work sheds new light on price setting in online retailing.
Keywords Convenient prices Price rigidity Rational inattention Amazoncom Online retailing
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Abstract The father of the “Austrian” Marginalist revolution and founder of the so-called “Austrian School of economics”, Carl Menger, had a mixed reception during different periods of development of French economics. Somewhat welcomed in the early days, he was rather forgotten later on. Even his major works were not published in translation until recently. What is the reason for such a situation? Criticisms of classical political economy have to be understood in their French context. In comparison to other countries, this paper details the case of France, besides showing how later Austrians, such as Friedrich Hayek, found a limited audience. This comparative study of economic ideas in France must start with the reception of the views of the founder and the role and impact of adopting/adapting or rejecting his views by French scholars. What place did they find in French academia? From Carl Menger to a “Frenchified” Charles Menger, how was Austrian economic thought disseminated in France? This essay starts by recalling the Belle-Époque and an astonishing letter by Charles Rist for the Jubiläum of Menger, in which he deplored the lack of translation of the latter’s works. The Austrian School in France is then discussed as pure economics replaces political economy in the Interwar period, with the 1938 Paris Congress of “liberal thinkers,” as the Vienna Circle became known, also comparing issues in philosophy. The paper considers how Austrian theories of “pure science” were received in Paris from the Vienna of the 1900s, at a time of ”Crossroads,” to the present day, through the Postwar and Cold War, until a revival since the 1990s and a rethinking of economic ideas after 2008.
Keywords Transfer of theories in the social sciences, Productive reception, Simiand François, Menger Carl, Hayek Friedrich, Ustrian School of Economics
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